McAfee Internet Security 2012 ($80 for one year, 3 PCs as of Jan 29, 2012) finished 14th in a 2012 roundup of Internet confidence suites. Despite a low ranking, it achieved good in some areas; a altogether disproportionate showing, however, valid to be a undoing in this year’s intensely rival collection of suites.

First, a good news: McAfee’s apartment does really good during detecting malware before a assailant infects your PC. It entirely blocked 96.2 percent of mint malware in a real-world malware-blocking tests–a somewhat above-average measure compared with a other suites we looked during this year. Meanwhile, a 99.99 percent display rate for famous malware samples was a second-best outcome we saw this year–and ever, for that matter. Its 3 fake positives (out of a pool of 250,000 files) wasn’t a comprehensive lowest we saw, though it was still really good.

But nonetheless McAfee’s apartment put adult a good display in those tests, it was another story once malware got onto a exam computer. The McAfee package rescued 80 percent of active infections on a exam system, a below-average result–only one other 2012 apartment we evaluated was incompetent to detect all infections in this test.

In addition, a McAfee product rendered malware infections dead usually 70 percent of a time–the second-lowest display in this test. By comparison, 9 of a 14 suites we looked during successfully infirm all infections on a exam PC. That said, McAfee’s apartment was means to exterminate all traces of infections 60 percent of a time–a somewhat above-average outcome among this collection of suites.

McAfee’s apartment struggled in some of a system-speed tests, producing a greater-than-average impact on altogether complement performance. It generally struggled in a application-installation test, and when we copied files over a network. It combined over 1.5 mins to a app-installation exam (as compared with a exam PC with no antivirus installed), that was a second-worst display in this test. As for network record copying, it tacked on scarcely 2 mins to a test, a outcome good adequate for usually eighth place.

Scan speeds weren’t great, either. McAfee’s on-demand scanner (which runs when we manually start a scan) took 1 minute, 51 seconds to check 4.5GB of files, fixation tenth altogether for this subcategory. Its on-access scanner–which runs whenever we open or save a file–disappointed as well: Its time of 7 minutes, 4 seconds was a second-worst outcome we saw in that test.

All that said, we like McAfee’s interface. The suite’s installer takes a few stairs to complete, though it has a integrate good touches: It will check your PC for malware before we install, and it will download a newest chronicle of a program before it starts installation. The refurbish check will take a while over slower connections, though it’s a acquire further nonetheless. For a many part, McAfee’s categorical control row is easy to use–clean, uncluttered, and friendly.

On a other hand, a fact that a firewall asks we to confirm that apps to concede or repudiate Internet entrance is not really user-friendly, and strikes me as a holdover from a days when it was fine for a confidence apartment to be formidable and irritating to use.

Should we buy McAfee Internet Security 2012? Although it didn’t do terribly overall, and nonetheless it offers some things to like, we find it formidable to give this package a recommendation deliberation a low ranking. But if McAfee can well-spoken out some of a severe spots, a apartment might be value watching.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 3:30 am and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.